I had a bit of trouble at the Silverdale Irish Session tonight.
My flute cracked.
Okay. Just before I left for the session and other interesting errands down there, I realized had nothing to play on flute-wise and didn’t want to borrow one of the completed Folk Flutes that get shipped out Monday for this (I am hanging onto these to show Grey Larsen who will be visiting the workshop on Friday). And my arthritic hands* require something small handed these days, thus my curly boxwood Rudall which I sometimes play wouldn’t do.
So instead I grabbed my template for my small holed flutes. This is one of the one piece bodies for my early 2 piece Folk Flute design. This body of a flute has a crack along its entire length that was revealed when I first turned it in 2002 and I never sealed it up and have never oiled this piece. Why bother? It was headed for the firewood pile but instead I have used it as the template for finger hole drill sizing for my small handed flutes since. It simply lives as a hole gauge with 6 holes.
So I grabbed this and a spare head joint that plays well with it.
So 30 minutes into this session I suddenly couldn’t get any sound out of the bottom octave. Was like someone had stuffed cotton into it. Too bad the session was at a coffeehouse instead of an Irish Pub otherwise I would have tried the old method of pouring Guinness to seal it up. I excused myself early, explaining this problem to my friends, and how it was kind of embarrassing, given what I do for a living.
Everyone got a good laugh.
Casey
(* footnote: my hands are arthritic from 33 years of instrument making!)
(* footnote: my hands are arthritic from 33 years of instrument making!)
Everything that man esteems endures a moment or a day.
Love’s pleasure drives his love away,
The Painter’s brush consumes his dreams.
The herald’s cry, the soldier’s tread
Exhausts his glory with his might.
Whatever flames upon the night
Man’s own resinous heart has fed.
I not through with this yet or that worn out. I am sort of at the peak of my career and still headed upward I think.
My current plan is to make flutes for 15 years more until I am about 73. between now and then I want to make and put up 10 flutes a month, and just hide them away in a special humidity controlled box. After then I’ll stop taking orders except for what is in stock, and start making only instruments I feel like making instruments. If I make it till age 80, that will be pushing the boundaries of male DNA and longevity in my family history but its still possible. If I make it till 88 (30 years from now), this plus Social Security should still provide enough income to live comfortably.
Regarding arthritis – I read an article on Renoir, probably 20-30 years ago. He developed rheumatoid arthritis when he was around 50. The article showed a photo of him in a wheelchair, painting with a brush bandaged to his hand. IIRC, it was his daughter who would attend to him, taking one brush out and slipping another into the bandages. I don’t recall whether he did any masterpieces in his last decade or two, when he was almost fully crippled, but I also don’t remember the quality of his work going down at all.
I also have arthritis in my hands and feet. It’s no fun, but when I get discouraged by it, I just think of Renoir, who’s on my short list of the greatest artists ever.